Session 7-1: S.O.S.

The PC's have to respond to the distress call, or the captain will be relieved of command and each one in succession if they fail to help a ship in distress. It takes a few minutes before everyone figures out what they should do and then the following information can be relayed to the captain;

1. The ship is a minor merchant.
   
2. There are no other ships within scanning range answering the distress call.
   
3. Sensors indicate that the engines are down and the ship is on auxiliary power.
   
4. The closest star system is 15LY away.
   
5. The ship is not using the normal GC call signs, which suggests that something isn't right.
   
6. A scan of the ship reveals there are over two-hundred life-signs, about twice the crew of what a ship this size would normally have, and most of them are in the passageways near the airlocks.

The ship is actually a stranded pirate, in an attempt to flee from an encounter with a patrol vessel they damaged the engines. They got away, but are now in serious trouble, their course took them away from the normal shipping lanes and they have been stranded for over two days. Under normal circumstances the pirates would attempt to take over the ship that was helping them, a common strategy they have used many times. The problem is their inability to scan the cruiser, without knowing what type of ship it is and the complement it is just too risky. They have decided to play it safe and see what happens, though they are prepared in case the ship answering the distress realizes they are not just a merchant.
The crew is demoralized, not only are the engines down, but they are low on fuel and haven't been faring very well. They belong to a fleet of rouge ships that have been operating in this area, but a GC fleet was dispatched to hunt them down and has almost wiped them out. Once the cruiser gets close, they will be able to see the silhouette and think that the GC has sent some new kind of ship, especially to get them. The problem though, is that they can't identify the design, or see any weapon configurations.
Depending on how the PC's handle this, several things can happen;

1. The PC's are not cautious enough and seizing the opportunity the pirates try to board the cruiser and take the ship. (Very unlikely as the AI will be quick to respond to the first sign of weapons fire, by erecting force fields.)
   
2. The PC's play it too cautiously and just tow the ship to a nearby colony.
   
3. The PC's try to recruit the pirates, who will gladly form an alliance.
   

If the PC's form an alliance they can tow the ship back to their home base and return later, (after they drop off the research scientists!). The pirates will need some basic supplies for their immediate use and if the PC's are willing the others need food and water desperately enough that they offer to pay.
The pirate base is located on a planetoid, in a gas cloud, just outside of the Valamos region, it is well secluded and the captain of the pirates will want to take the helm, to guide them. If the PC's let him, he will be suitably impressed with the ship to recommend to his friends that they don't try anything. If none of the pirates are allowed on board though, they will think that the cruiser is a cargo vessel and when it returns they will attempt to take it. The AI will not let the him take the helm, but after he tries he will agree to give the coordinates; (Quad D Sector 17:Q / G:6 -22 (based on Cirrus))
There are six-hundred pirates on the planetoid and fifteen ships, including the one the PC's tow back. They live on their ships and they look pretty beaten up. Several look like they were probably towed here too, as they have been damaged by Nova fire. All together they might be able to damage the cruiser, but if they fire on the Chulan the PC's will get their first chance to fire the guns and will knock the fight out of them real quick.

When the PC's return, if they remain cloaked, the pirates will be surprised and not offer a fight. Reconfirming the alliance they will eventually agree to relocate to the star base and turn the planetoid over to the PC's. Who can then turn it into a serious base of operations. A lot of them (250) will not want to be crew members anymore and will take the opportunity to muster out, but the rebels will gain 420 who can be divided up; Some can join the Chulan crew, some the new cruiser crew, some can help Dobbes, and the rest can take over the voyager, which is in much better shape that anything they have. The PC's will need to supply them with enough fuel to get them to Cirrus and tow another ship which is home to the women and children.
When the PC's provide them with desperately needed supplies, their loyalty will cement and the PC's will not have to worry about them. Once they make it to the star base they will become avid rebels and the PC's will find out that the captain is highly skilled and very competent. His name is Garth and he was captain of a military fleet for twenty years. He got tired of issuing commands that made him lose sleep and became a pirate just to get back at the GC. Besides having star charts on four nearby regions he has a lot of vital information that the PC's can use and his brilliant strategies are what has allowed the pirates to operate for a decade without losing a single ship, though they did have to tow some of them.
Once the PC's trust him and see what he can do, they can place him in command of a fleet of his own and be assured that GC won't take the starbase. He is important to the PC's campaign and if they don't recruit him he will be pirating their ships later. If he gets hands on a cruiser though, he will go and reek havoc on GC shipping lanes, so either way he will serve the interests of the PC's.
Treat the pirates as regular recruits with the GE basically getting 15 free ships and enough equipment to support a class one colony. The ships are not fully operational but it would not take much to make them so. 
There are;

Session 7-2: Seeds of Destruction

The PC's should have more control over the Chulan, especially if they took the researchers with them. In a closet in the robotics lab is a three foot sphere that contains the blueprints and nano-components to build other TL-12 star ships. The sphere is left in orbit around a star and uses the solar power, a matter/energy converter and nano-bots, to do the rest. The ships that are built do not have all the capabilities of the Chulan, (see Appendix Four), but are powerful in their own right. When the process is finished another ship will need to retrieve the new star ship and transfer a crew. The crew will then spend the next phase of the process outfitting the ship for it's mission parameters. Whether the ship is going to be merely a transport, or a battle cruiser, it is uniquely designed by the crew while it is in this phase. The ship is capable of being put into service at this point, it will just not have some of the more intricate technology like the holodeck, labs, and shops.
The PC's may have already sown one, or more of these "seeds" and may be ready to transfer a crew, the problem will be that they don't have the manpower. A skeleton crew can be formed by taking the voyager out of commission and sending over part of the Chulan crew, but the new ship will be limited in it's service capabilities. This won't be too much of a problem, as they need a transport that they don't have to escort and the ship can be designed in the second phase for just this purpose. The new transport can immediately begin operating, by going to pick up the families of the researchers that the PC's just rescued. This is the main reason the PC's will need to transfer part of their crew, as they will know how the mission is carried out.
While the PC's may want a fleet of cruisers, they neither have the manpower, nor the use for them at this time. What they do need is communication relays, right now they are out of touch with the star base every time they leave and if something happens they will only find out when they return. The comm relays have other uses too, like monitoring ships moving in the area and surveying the space around them. If the PC's do not consider this a priority, have the council make it a request... Until they do, any teams they put in the field are at risk, it will take a while to build a communication network and this will be one of the PC's primary uses for the robotic lab on the cruiser. When the rebels start training crews for star ships, making cruisers will become more of a priority, but they will have to do a lot more recruiting before this happens...
If the PC's haven't built a new cruiser yet, then it will be up to them to return to Kara and abduct the families (1800 people) of the research scientists. This was one of the conditions of them joining the rebellion and the PC's are obliged to finish what they started...

Session 7-3: The Moles on Gallos

When the PC's make it back to Cirrus and deal with everything going on there, the council convenes and gives them a new mission; One of the inmates from the mining penal colony, says he is the son of a powerful man on Gallos, who has no love for the GC. He has assured the council that if he is taken back they will be rewarded and the council thinks they need more friends. The PC's are to proceed to Quad C Sector 10:H / H:6 ( +/-0), to the fourth planet. Take the boy home and assess the situation, if possible, liberate a few hundred inmates at the same time. The PC's will need to make some crew changes before they leave, (+50 researchers and pirates) which might just bring them up to a full complement. 
They must now give all the researchers something to do, besides just messing around with all the artifacts. They can put most of them to work on designing a university and a few can help Dobbes out, with learning how the ship yards work. Some of them will want to start working on designing science labs like what is on the Xeno and they will take over several levels of the upper command tower. The PC's won't like having them so close, but what can they do...

It's back to the Varran sector, to one of the few planets that the PC's haven't been to in the region. The planet they are told has only been a penal colony for about thirty years, after the leaders there failed in a political coup. The governor of Varran ordered nuclear strikes on several large cities and has kept the planet in martial law ever since. The boy's father bowed out of politics and went underground and the PC's are about to find out that the man was serious. The people in the farming community built an underground complex and have been living down there even before the bombings. The boy's father is a prominent leader of the underground, but until the PC's actually get there, they may mistake what the boy is saying to mean "rebel underground", not "mole underground". This is what the council thinks and they want the PC's to establish relations, providing the rebels with any supplies, or help they need.

If the PC's react by pulling, or pointing weapons, or worse, firing, the boy will get wounded. Tossing concussion grenades and then rushing them, the PC's will be disarmed and tied before they can put up much of a fight. They will then be split up and put in small cells and wait to meet the boys father who will be none to happy, but let the PC's go since they brought his son back. He will not be interested in an alliance and only give them back their weapons and equipment once they are back on the surface.
If the PC's submit to having their weapons and equipment taken, before the men barely start doing this, they will realize who the boy is and escort the party onward. They will lead them deeper, to a large room that is nothing like what they expected, from what they saw above. A window looks out into a large cavern, brightly lit, with hundreds of plants suspended from above. The walls are dotted with other windows like theirs and crisscrossing catwalks, with people dressed in nice clothes and looking healthy.
A man comes in dressed like a farmer and runs over and hugs the boy, after a few minutes he introduces himself as Ben, the leader of this underground city. He tells them lots more after calling for food and refreshments and the PC's realize it is the first home cooking they have had in a long time. Ben is a likable fellow and tells them everything about the place. How he started building the place before the bombing, as he could see the turn of events and believed the rumors of what had happened else where when an uprising took place. Now there are over ten thousand people living here below and more trickling in daily.
He is happy to join the rebellion and the PC's would be doing him a favor if they could take about four thousand people off his hands. He will accept emergency supplies and technological help and provide the PC's with a base of operations. The diplomats can sort everything out later, but for now the PC's are wined and dined...

This is the PC's first viable colony, which will grow by 0.5 every five years. Using a new chart (provided in Appendix One) the star date and disbursement is recorded, these figures are what is available to the PC's, for new crewmembers for instance. The significance of scientists, workers, and merchants, will be dealt with later, for now, the PC's will only be concerned with the available crewmembers. The four thousand extras are to be transferred to Cirrus and added on the numbers there, but after this the population will be added to the current numbers.

Session 7-4: Special Forces Teams

The PC's stay for a few days more and look over the city and see what they have to work with, but while Ben has the manpower, the raiding parties he has organized are woefully inexperienced and lack proper equipment. He has done alright so far, but the PC's will want to step up the operations. Gathering the resistance together they outline a training schedule and form their first Special Forces Team. This team's mission will be to harass the GC units on the planet and siphon off refugees, to be relocated on to one of the PC's colonies off world. The PC's would like to do all this themselves, but they could probably spend the rest of their lives on this world helping them out and they are needed elsewhere. The only option then is to put together a special unit that can handle the situation and that would be;

Special Forces Unit:

It will take six months to build the basic requirements for the base and then the recruits themselves will finish it within two years. The first class will all become instructors, commanders, and staff, then the second class may begin the course, classes start each month (if personnel is available). Out of the marine recruits, one percent will join the SF, when a class of thirty is reached it will begin. Out of these 2/3 will wash out and return to the normal military duty, with no special considerations. The dozen that are left will form a squad. A squad of SF have a high percentage of success rate and a low mortality rate. These squads can be sent on "missions" without too much fear of failure, failure will result in success of a mission, but loss of squad members. There is only a 10% chance something will go wrong, if it does, roll d10, this is the number of dead, (two will always survive). 
1 year is required to produce one squad and four instructors are required for each class, a squad's normal enlistment is 10 years. Four of these will remain for another 10 years as instructors. For each class, an additional 10 persons are required for the staff and support, these can be taken from the washouts. A typical SF base will have a support group of 500-700 and graduate 312 recruits a year, or 26 squads. A company of SF, or 10 squads is the equivalent of a small mobile army, if combined with another detachment of 50 mobile infantry marines, the company can over run any installation, no matter the strength, up to 10/1 odds, with less than 10% loss of life.
A squad of special forces is made up of the following units;

The special forces unit is what the PC's aspire to become, but do not have the skill in working as a team. When ever the PC's are working with one of these squads it should be apparent to them that they are a liability, it is the PC's who make them vulnerable and slow them down, not the other way around. Casualties will be on the side of the PC's group rather than the squads and mission failure will be their fault (PC's). Highly trained and skilled at working as a team, one squad can wreak havoc upon an entire planet far more effectively than the largest of rebel factions. They are hero's of a different caliber and while the PC's will often take the credit for the actions of a squad, they will be the true heroes of the rebellion. The only other special unit that is comparable to them are the Psi-warriors, who have the advantage of psionics and even they will respect the abilities of a squad.
It is important to note that SF squads are not armsmen, space marines are a step above the cannon fodder of infantry troops, but a SF member is one in a thousand. The hardest thing about forming SF squads will be finding recruits with the 'right stuff', many will aspire to the standards, but most will wash out during the training process. A typical squad will have a low mortality rate and a higher kill ratio than any other type of troop, skilled in insertion, and evacuation, often times they can cover their track sufficiently that no one knows that they are operating in the area.
The first two squads can be formed from regular armsmen, to get things going, but it will take a year before the next squad is formed and placed in the action. This first squad is designed to 'run' with the PC's and execute the missions after they evaluate the situations. Until a number of squads are on active duty this squad will be needed in the field, but they will pick up where the PC's leave off, so that they can go on to the next mission and not be tied up with the little details. A full company of armsmen and equal number of persons will be needed to support the SF squad, not necessarily to help them, but to provide doctors, supply personnel, and evacuation teams. Each squad will require star ships and large amounts of equipment to operate, they will use more ammunition during training, for example, than a company of armsmen in a war.

A chart is provided to keep track of the PC's squads, (see Appendix One).

Similar to the SO rule about PC's not dying, the SF squad always brings it's wounded out and rarely will have to replace it's members, yet some missions are more hazardous than others... Honors are awarded by the first type of mission, if successful, that a squad member takes part in, for example, the assassination of a leader will need the support of the whole squad, but it will be the sniper who actually pulls the trigger and earns the notoriety. Each honor gained is a modifier of 1%, that the whole team will be able to get in and out, without being noticed, even if the mission goes sour.
The PC's put together the first team from their own marines, who are more experience (level 5) and outline what they want to be achieved. A SF team has different missions depending on the planet they are located on;

Ambush (Level One)

This type of mission is designed to keep someone from discovering the location of a rebel base, by stopping them before they ever get near. From setting booby traps to diversion tactics, if a SF team is located on a planet any hidden bases are safe, as long as the SF team is in operation. If the team is relocated the base accumulates a 10% chance to be discovered, checked once a year.

Underground Railroad (Level Two)

With this type of mission the team can siphon off a population, keeping it from growing and diverting the growth to a PC colony, for as long as the team operates on the planet. Support must be provided to divert the population off the planet though. To determine the number of refugees that need transport, take the current population (C-3.5) divide by 2, divide by 5, divide by 12, and this is how many need transport per month (4,167). Then the distance to the new colony is calculated verses flight time for a ship. For penal colonies with a large population the PC's will be hard pressed to keep up.

Scare Tactics (Level Three)

During these missions the enemy is hit when they least expect it and with the maximum effect, to cause enemy units to hole up and become demoralized. While a SF team is on a planet raids on the population stop and rebel activity increases.

Key Targets (Level Four)

On planets that have prisons, penal outposts, military outposts, and research facilities, the team can systematically destroy these places and divert refugees to the underground railroad. One target is wiped out per year and no new facilities can be built, while the team is operating on the planet.

Assassination (Level Five)

While the team is located on a planet, key figures in the military and government are routinely assassinated and makes the team feared, as well as the most wanted in the region.

Snipe Hunting (Level Six)

Is a mission where a sniper avoids patrols, while sniping at people and objects within a base camp, the effectiveness of patrols is nullified and other units and PC's can operate on a planet with impunity.

Long Arm Tactics (Level Seven)

At this rank, the SF team can reach out and operate on bases that are off world, acquiring their own transportation to and from the target. Star bases, satellite colonies, and other planets are now with in the reach of the team.

Raiders (Level Eight)

When a team reaches this rank, shipping lanes are no longer safe passing through the system. Merchant lanes, patrols, and even fleets become targets. At this level the SF team can provide their own supplies and support. This effectively draws the presence of a border and prevents enemy units from being deployed on the planet.

Blanket Tactics (Level Nine)

The team gains the ability at this level, to operate within an entire sector, performing their missions on all planets located within that sector. They can provide their own support, transports, and supplies, needing no support from the rebel bases.

Revolution (Level Ten)

When the SF team reaches the rank of ten, a revolution automatically takes place within the sector. This is achieved through propaganda and the elimination of the opposition. However, if the sector is not bordered by a rebel sector on at least one adjoining side, the enemy has no recourse but to bombard the planet which is disastrous. The entire sector will rejoin the opposition and rebels will give away the locations of any bases located in the sector and help to hunt down and destroy the team, successfully, this sector will never join the PC's side after this, even in the event of a campaign win. The only way to prevent this from happening is to remove the team from operation and replace them with a less skilled team.
If a revolution occurs on a planet with a military outpost, or enemy bases of any kind, they are automatically destroyed. In this way the SF team's mission is competed and they can finally go home.

The missions a team is capable of carrying out is based on their skill level (rank), with a team gaining one level per year, after graduation. Rank is automatic and can only be prevented by retiring the unit, or moving them to a better suited planet. When a team reaches the equivalent of rank eleven, they are automatically retired and a team that is rank one takes their place and can keep operations going. If the new team is moved though, their ability to carry out missions is respective of their rank.


Once an SF force in placed on a planet they will carry out all these missions on their own initiative and without supervision. Any planet with one of these units can deploy any other unit without the fear of capture, or failure, as the SF team nullifies reactions, or intervention from enemy units. A company of these teams (10) can effectively suppress an entire region of space, from any enemy ground activity, or population growth. The regional government will be in disarray and for all intents and purposes is removed from being a part of the whole. The one drawback of deploying these teams is that they utilize a large amount of resources, either the entire resources of a 10k population, or that of one cruiser, per team. Support in the way of star ships must also be provided (in addition to a cruiser) to transport siphoned off refugees.
The team can not be hunted down, or nullified by the enemy, as they employ hit and run tactics which allow them to fight on their own terms and on their own schedule. The deployment of an entire army to hunt them, can only slow the team down, which does not prevent them from carrying out their missions, as it just gives them more targets...
The only way to disable a SF team is to cut off it's support, or resources, by stationing a fleet in the system permanently. This fleet becomes a target though and must be renewed by the enemy on a continual basis. The presence of the fleet will prevent the team from gaining rank, receiving supplies, or transporting refugees. This fleet can not engage rebel ships unless they move into the star system, a rebel fleet though can pass by the system and so long as they do not stop, they are not intercepted. If a team is below rank eight, it is effectively cut off from operations off world, but at level eight the fleet it's self becomes a target and within a year can be totally destroyed.
The level and Rank of a team are entirely different, level is respective of each team members skill, while rank reflects it's capabilities. Levels are automatically gained each year and after the tenth, the team will disband, though if possible, will be replaced by a team that can operate at the same rank as the previous one. Rank is based on the missions a team can carry out and the building of their network of support and resources. While the level of a team can not be stopped, by the enemy, or the PC's for that matter, gaining rank though can be suppressed by the intervention of an enemy fleet being deployed within the system. The following example is given;

A team reaches level and rank five, after operating on the same planet for five years and begins assassinating, the enemy moves a fleet into the system and the team no longer gains rank, but after another five years the team disbands and is replaced by a new team from a secret base on the planet. They too gain experience every year but their rank stays the same. If there is no rebel base on the planet though the team can not be replaced and all operations cease. Another team can be sneaked on to the planet, but if the enemy fleet can detect the ship, it will be intercepted...
In the case of the team on Gallos, they are already level five, but their missions are limited to rank one, after five years they will have gained rank five, but they will disband and a new team will replace them, when this team reaches level six, (after six years) they will also gain rank six and continue to progress in both level and rank, unless a fleet is deployed to the system. If a fleet is already stationed in the system, this team will not gain rank either.

The effectiveness of the campaign is based on revolutions, if an untimely revolution occurs, where the sector ends up hating the rebel government, (because they got bombarded). The "score" is lowered so to speak, this can happen if the PC's deploy teams in systems behind enemy lines and then are unable to secure the sectors adjacent to that sector. Or, if the team can not be replaced, before it causes a revolution, because the PC's are unable, or unwilling to engage an enemy fleet that is classed as a border patrol (discussed later).

Session 7-5: Bomb Factory

Ben's people don't know much, just that the planet is in this sector (H:4 -9) and the name of the planet is Morgar, 4 of 11. There is a military outpost, a fleet in orbit, and several spy satellites. He knows there is only one factory and the outpost is quite a ways from it, but it is heavily guarded. There is only a few people who work there and the PC's will get to interview an old man who was a crew member on a merchant vessel that routinely stopped. He can give them a rough idea of the layout, but his memory is faded and he won't be much help. The main piece of information he has is that the factory is one large building, which isn't completely true, but it is all he remembers.

Each character will require hourly RCIB shots (Radioactive Contamination Immunity Booster) or suffer burns increasing in severity, two hours without protection will result in death within two weeks. The crew of the Xenophone will need to spend weeks decontaminating the ship after this mission and there will be some after-affects like minor hair loss, cavities, growing fingernails and such that can't be helped. The factory is so contaminated that RCIB shots given every half hour to the inmates are still not enough and the workforce has a high mortality rate of at least one a day. The inmates that the PC's need to rescue will not all make it, even with the doctors best efforts, ten will die from radiation sickness.
Handheld scanners, communications, and other electronic equipment will not work properly, though can be adjusted. The PC's may opt to "harvest" the radioactive material stockpile, which will put them at max fuel capacity with a lot left over. There are three options to destroying the factory, blow it up, using conventional explosives, or detonate a nuke. The second option requires a character with physics and demolition experience combined (not two characters), or a third option, using the ships transporters to move the material so that it causes a melt down (not an explosion) which won't be detected, but will kill everyone by morning and prevent anyone from visiting. The radiation monitors are all turned off and not used except to check the incoming material and the product being shipped. 
If the PC's use the weapons stored here, or blow the explosive storage bunker, it will be thought to be an accident. If they bring their own explosives and set charges, there is a possibility that the investigators will suspect it is an outside job. When they check the sensor logs of the fleet, they will notice that a ship entered the system (from the jump flash) and a report will be filed indicating it was a rebel act of sabotage. Propaganda will be released listing thousands dead, which doesn't begin to touch the number who have actually died here over the years. If the PC's can make it look like an accident though the investigation won't go far and the planet as a whole will be wrote off and GC forces will move out and let the place remain as is. (Providing the PC's with a refueling point if they think of it, 500,000u worth.) An underground bunker located fifty miles away will show a high radiation signature also, a PC with military construction skill can identify it as a weapons depot.

Depending upon how much recon the PC's do, they will find out;

1. A truck moving down the highway towards the factory is weaving and going slower and slower, finally it runs off the road and comes to a halt, with the engine still running. The man inside is suffering from sever rad. poisoning. (If the PC's get him help and wait a day until he recovers somewhat, he will be an excellent source of information, he has been there several months and knows the compound and many of the outlying structures too.
   
2. All of the gates are open and the disrepair of them and the fence suggests that no one tries to escape. (Where would they go?)
   
3. The guards take precautions like decontamination suits and have a decon shower outside the barracks. (It doesn't help.)
   
4. When a shuttle lands, the pilot and other crew member literally kick the cargo out the hatch and take off, (not wanting to wait around for help unloading it).
   
5. The inmates drive the vehicles unescorted by guards, (they don't want to get that close to them and the trucks and buses are contaminated as bad as the factory.)
   
6. The inmates are monitored by camera (the ones that work), or through thick yellowed leaded glass, (which doesn't allow them to identify individuals and the PC's could pass for inmates if they are disguised).
   
7. The entire place is badly in need of repair and it would be easy to create a believable accident (distraction).
   
8. Raw materials enter by the west entrance and products leave by the east.
   
9. There are no roving or posted guards around the complex, most of the guards sit in protected rooms overlooking the inside of the factory. Cameras are used to monitor the outside of the factory, (even if something happened, it would have to be extremely obvious before any of them would go outside).
   
10. There is no tech on duty at the power plant, every once in a while an inmate goes out to it and a little later returns. (The inmates operate the controls and are instructed once they reach the power plant, it incidentally is closely monitored and the door has a remote locking mechanism.)
    
11. There looks to be what was once guard towers, but they have rusted and fallen over, not being used in a very long time. 

The guards stay in their protected areas, a tunnel connects the barracks to the factory and unless something very serious is going on they will not enter the factory, or go outside. They used to man the guard towers, have roving patrols, guards in all the buildings, and drive the vehicles themselves. When they started dying in ever increasing numbers though they refused to do any of this. Now they use remote controlled lasers to force their will upon the inmates, (they tried denying them rations, but the first sign of radiation sickness is nausea and this proved ineffective, most of the food gets wasted anyway). The guards will do anything from having to step foot outside the protected areas, ordering the inmates to investigate, to the last man if necessary. Then when they go out, after a half hour of dressing up in a protective suit they will spend as little time as possible. 
The PC's may think the place is abandoned at first, as no one will be walking around and there are no guards posted, but after watching for a while they will see a shuttle land, quickly off load it's cargo, (even explosives are thrown out the hatch...) and a few inmates will come out of the factory, (without an escort) and move the cargo to one of the storage buildings. None of them will try to escape because of the thin atmosphere and the cold, slow death is preferable to suffocation. The only place they could go is somewhere else to die and while the guards won't chase them down if one is seen leaving, a call to the military outpost will bring a fighter on a strafing run to chase them back. The lasers around the complex are not powerful enough to kill, except by a lucky shot, but they leave a nasty burn and a prisoner escaping can get hit a dozen, or more times before they make it far enough.
The inmates working on the new facility are under guard once they get there and during the bus ride to-and-fro a wing of fighters will make numerous passes over their route. The lasers and cameras are already installed at the new facility and there is less of a chance of them escaping as the equipment is new and the guards can see better. The inmates though all have a sense of doom and know their days are numbered, many of them won't get excited about being rescued thinking that they are going to die anyway. And if the PC's do not set up some kind of decontamination procedure, or give consideration to the workers being heavily contaminated, they will find that they will have problems with the ships systems. The transporters for example can not be set to filter out the contamination as the inmates flesh is so saturated with it that they would not re-materialize. The transporters have a chance (10%) that with each transport one of the pads will blow out, (it will take 12, to get all the inmates and the PC's on board).

The factory is close to being shut down from all the contamination and most of the inmates will be working on the new facility. Each morning a hundred and fifty of them are bused (5) out to the new site. Even though there are no radioactive materials there yet, the place is already heavily contaminated from the workers carrying it with them. The workers are not provided with contamination suits and they quit using the showers as they are one of the heaviest contaminated areas. There is only one shift of fifty inmates working at the plant, they are the healthiest of the lot, which isn't saying much. The average workers life-span here is only a few months and many kill themselves to escape the pain of radiation sickness. There are twenty-five inmates in the dorm, who are bed ridden and they are proven to be unable to get up by laser burns. (When a inmate refuses to get out of bed, the guards burn them a few times, to make sure.)

Nuclear Weapons Factory Layout

The interiors of the building are not given, as the PC's scanning equipment will tell them that it would be extremely hazardous to enter any of the buildings. The radiation is so high that the booster shots will not protect them and they will receive a dose that will cause mild radiation sickness if exposed for even a short period of time. They will have to catch the inmates in the morning, or at night and avoid being seen by the air patrols, as well as the cameras.

1. Inmate Dorms, this area is the most highly contaminated next to the factory itself, there are 25 inmates bedridden though, which the PC's will have to send the other inmates after.
   
2. Offices, two guards will be located here at all times, to man the radio and computer station.
   
3. Barracks, sixty guards are stationed here and forty will be in the barracks at all times. If the PC's are seen though, they will call for an air strike. If the comm tower is blown though, a dozen of them will take time to suit up before coming out though. If they get taken out, no more will follow though, they will think it not worth the effort. (If the factory is blown and the barracks and offices collapse, no one will try to rescue the guards and they would rather die than dig themselves out.)
   
4. Comm tower. There is a gun emplacement but it is not manned.
   
5. Resource storage facilities;
   
   a. Explosives
   b. Electronics
   c. Casings
   d. Radioactive materials
   
6. Bomb storage, each building houses 100, once a month they are loaded onto a shuttle and taken to a station on the planet where the exteriors are washed to try and decontaminate them. Then they are taken to an underground bunker and stored.
   
7. Motor pool, there are hundreds of broken down and abandoned vehicles to the south. There will be five inmates working here during the day.
   
8. Bomb factory, most of the facility is underground.
   
9. Power plant, inmates are sent here from the motor pool periodically to make adjustments to the equipment.

If the PC's blow the weapons depot also, it will be a dead give away that this is a rebel act of sabotage and the region will go on alert. Yet if the PC's have the depot watched they can learn where these bombs are transported and reek even worse havoc later. (Thousands of them are stored on moons in uninhabited sectors, with a storage facility in every region. A fleet will be patrolling the system, but will not venture away from the moon.)
If the PC's intend to make this a covert-op mission, their biggest threat will be from air patrols, it won't be to hard to take out a few cameras and make it to the power plant and blow it first. (This will disable the cameras and lasers.) There is enough explosives in the storage building to level the entire facility, but setting off one of the nukes will give them away, the triggers are not installed here and there is no way that one can accidentally explode. In order to detonate one, a character must have nuclear physics and demolition skills of at least 5, or higher. No one will investigate the site if a nuke goes off, but it will be assumed to be an act of sabotage and if the sensors on the fleet ships pick up the flash of a ship dropping from FTL, it will be assumed that a rebel faction with ships is operating in the area and the region will go on alert.
If the alarm is sounded and the guards can get a transmission out, it will only take ten minutes before an entire squadron of fighters reaches the factory. The fleet in orbit will also go on alert and the PC's will not make it out of the system without giving themselves away. The fleet will not break orbit though, they are there to guard the weapons depot.

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